Ghosts I-IV is ranked the best selling MP3 album of 2008 on Amazon's MP3 store.
NIN wasn't always considered mainstream, but any way you slice it, a long, ambient industrial album like Ghosts I-IV is not pop music. Its amazing on a cultural level that this is the most popular MP3 album on Amazon. Is this really what people are listening to these days, or is this some sort of statistical anomaly? Granted, *I* like this kind of stuff a lot. Ambient Industrial is probably my favorite musical genre. But I always figured I was the sort of jerk who was qualified to wear this t-shirt. I never thought an album I really liked would top Amazon's sales charts.
If an anomaly, is it due to the album's price? Its a bit cheaper and a lot longer than most of the MP3 albums on Amazon but its only cheaper by a few bucks. Are Amazon shoppers more likely to be into Nine Inch Nails? Some people are arguing that Nine Inch Nails fans are more likely to spend money on their band's work, rather than download it from a torrent, because they are a loyal fan base, but as a loyal NIN fan I bought my copy from NIN's website, rather than Amazon, when it was announced on their mailing list, so I'm not sure these sales reflect that core fan base. If this isn't an anomaly, are people seeking out more ambient industrial music in general? Has there been a surge in interest in Square Pusher? Autechre? Logikal? Or is it Trent Reznor's fame that has put this album out in front? Are people snapping up this album not because its the sort of stuff they are really into but because they kind of like NIN and there just isn't anything better out there in 2008? I have a deeper worry that I've been mulling over for a few months... Does the popularity of this sort of music reflect a dark undercurrent in American culture at the dawn of a serious economic cataclysm? I recall feeling that the new Batman movie was, well, a bit too intense. It was, in fact, exactly the Batman movie that I always wanted them to make - serious and complicated, but suddenly it made me uncomfortable to find THAT movie as THE summer blockbuster... I looked around myself in the theater and I thought "they've gone too far... these people aren't supposed to be into this kind of stuff." The counter culture is supposed to be dark, brooding, complicated, and intellectually obtuse. Normal people should be downloading Pop Tarts and watching Indiana Jones. When they turn to this kind of thing instead, in huge numbers, what does it mean? What makes for a cool anti-fashion on the fringes is positively disturbing when it goes mainstream. What are we becoming? re NIN best selling cc-licensed music (Lessig Blog) | 
